Standard & Poor’s is threatening to cut Japan’s credit rating, which doesn’t sound like that big a deal in a world where no one’s credit is quite what it used to be. But Japan is a special case. It’s been borrowing like crazy at rates two or so percentage points below what the U.S. pays on 30-year Treasuries. And it intends to further ramp up its borrowing to keep the economy from falling back into deflation.

A lot of people think this is a really bad plan:

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